The Fall Of The Phoenix (Marvel/The Avengers)

Chapter 1 - Bright Blue

"You comfortable up there, Barton?" I yelled up to the Agent who was assigned to watch over things. He had created himself a little perch above everyone so that he could monitor everything. I had spoken to him quite a bit, more than the doctor who I'd never really had a proper conversation with. He always seemed to get distracted and go off topic unexpectedly.

"Perfectly."

"Don't need anything. Like, I don't know... that thing called food? Maybe a pillow?" He reached behind him for something and then pulled out a nut bar, waving it at me as a response. "That's it? That's your food for the entire day?"

"I'll eat more when I'm off duty."

"You're never off duty." I argued. "You get here before I do and leave well after."

"You rarely ever leave."

"That's my point!" I shot back.

"Well at least it's a nice view most of the time." He smirked back. This had become a habit between us. Not much happened down here in the basement lab so we had to amuse ourselves somehow and flirtatious teasing seemed like the best option. Let's face it... Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, was certainly nice to look at with his short cut light brown hair, deep blue eyes, and badass compound bow and did I mention those arms? I was about to shoot a comment back at him when one of the younger, less experienced scientists yelled my name.

"Miss Morgan!" The young man ran up to me. "Miss Morgan, it's the Tesseract, something's happening."

I ran past the boy and to the device immediately seeing the problem.

It was active.

The Tesseract had a set energy level that it never faltered from. I had built a mechanism to stabilise and hold it just in case, but we honestly weren't expecting it to do so without being prompted. The doctor had left for a while and I was simply standing back, waiting for his return before we would begin to discuss some more experiments we could run, but right now it wasn't being touched.

"What's happening?" I heard Clint yell down to me.

"Stay up there!" I yelled back before he could come down. "Ring the doctor! Get him to come back, now!" I yelled at no-one in particular. The energy level was still going up and I wasn't sure if the machine could hold it for too long, after all we never knew the true strength of the Tesseract or even if it could be contained. "Call Fury as well and sound the evacuation alarms, to be safe." I said, more calmly this time and actually looking at the poor frightened boy. In truth he was probably 25, which would be four years older than what I looked.

I went to the laptop and started typing in different formulas at a rapid rate that no-one else around me would have been able to keep up with. Doctor Selvig soon arrived and I didn't need to explain anything to him. The others in the lab did that as I still typed away at an inhumane speed on the laptop.

"What if you hit the wrong key?" The doctor asked, coming up beside me, but he was deadly serious.

"I haven't and I won't"

"How do you know? You're typing to fast to be able to read it on the screen."

"I can read it." Was all I said, I wasn't in a playful mood anymore, I was working.

"Where is Fury?" He asked someone near him, not bothering with me anymore.

"He's in a chopper, on his way now, Doctor. The evacuation procedures have begun for safety, what would you have of us?"

"Leave." I stated. "Only armed Agents to stay behind and one scientist manning a screen each, everyone else, out." I said as I stood up straight, stepping back from the computer. "Hawkeye!" I yelled, using his code name. It only took him a few seconds to come down from his perch and reach me. "I want armed men positioned around the room."